A senior financial regulator has been accused of misleading MPs by falsely claiming that his office helped to get investors a better deal in the Co-operative Group’s rescue.

Clive Adamson, the director of supervision at the Financial Conduct Authority, told the Treasury Select Committee last week: “The retail bondholders, in my view, received as best a deal as we could get for them.”

His account has been challenged by Mark Taber, who led the campaign for retail bondholders and claims that the FCA “did nothing throughout” to make a difference.